Tokyo Police Respond to the Call of Football

KAWASAKI, Japan — The members of the Tokyo Police Department’s Ninth Riot Squad are professionals at containing demonstrations, foiling terrorists and preventing mayhem. On any given Sunday, they also make mayhem on the football field as the Keishicho Eagles.

One of the more curious teams in one of Japan’s more obscure leagues, the Eagles are a longtime member of the X League, the top division of a four-tier amateur football league that has existed since 1971.

Unlike, say, the Asahi Soft Drink Challengers or the Tokyo Gas Creators, the Eagles lack a deep-pocketed corporate sponsor and instead rely on the Keishicho, or metropolitan Police Department. And while other teams are made up of players who hold desk jobs during the week, the Eagles are the only team stocked entirely with civil servants, always on call and frequently transferred to new posts.

The Eagles are also all Japanese, so they have not added any of the former American college players who have helped the Obic Seagulls, the Fujitsu Frontiers and other teams.

Even with these handicaps, the Eagles have held their own. Their jobs keep them in good shape, and because they work closely, they are more cohesive than teams made up of players from different companies.

Last season, the Eagles won the second division, or X2, beating the Taiyo Building Management Cranes in a one-game playoff, and earned promotion back to the X League, which has 18 teams in three six-team divisions.

“We communicate well because we work and practice together,” Chiharu Tanaka, the team’s captain, said recently after the Eagles played the Hurricanes. “And because we do some kind of exercise every day, we are superior to other teams.”

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The Keishicho Eagles playing the Hurricanes in Kawasaki, Japan.CreditKo Sasaki for The New York Times

A Loyal Core

At first glance, American football might seem an odd fit, not just in Japan but with the Police Department, one of the more traditional organizations in the country. Playing fields are in short supply in densely packed cities like Tokyo and Osaka, and helmets, shoulder pads and other equipment are expensive.

Though Japanese follow sumo and, to a lesser degree, rugby, games of skill and speed like baseball and soccer are more popular.

Still, football, which was introduced by an American missionary in the 1930s, has a small but avid following. American soldiers and sailors stationed in Japan since the end of World War II have helped promote the game, and rooting for football has cachet with Japanese looking for something fresh and foreign.

The appeal of the N.F.L., which hosted preseason games in Tokyo until 2005, has also lifted the sport. Regular-season games and the Super Bowl are broadcast here. So is the X League championship, as well as the Rice Bowl, the annual showdown between the X League and collegiate champions.

Japanese may miss some of the nuances of the game, but they like football’s balletic chess match, according to Riichiro Fukahori, the commissioner of the National Football Association, which runs the X League.

“It’s difficult to understand the rules, but the Japanese like the strategy of the game,” said Fukahori, who played linebacker for the Asahi Beer Silver Star in the 1990s.

Still, only about 20,000 Japanese play tackle football, about half of them in college. The numbers have remained consistent, but they are unlikely to grow much because of the country’s declining birthrate. The game remains strongest in and around Tokyo and Osaka, which are home to the largest universities and companies.

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In the 1960s and ’70s, the Police Department established riot squads to cope with the frequent protests against Japan’s security treaty with the United States.CreditAssociated Press

Downturn Is Felt

The X League, which was originally named the Japan American Football League, came of age during Japan’s high-growth years, when Nissan, Panasonic and other companies started teams to promote their brands.

But Japan’s long downturn has forced companies to merge or dissolve their teams in all sports. In the past 15 years, the number of football teams in the four divisions of the X League has fallen by half, to about 50, Fukahori said. Just three out of the 18 teams in the top division are made up of players from one employer. The rest are so-called club teams, with players from different companies.

The Eagles were formed for more practical reasons than corporate marketing. In the 1960s and ’70s, the Police Department established riot squads to cope with the frequent protests against Japan’s security treaty with the United States. The department saw sports as a way to toughen its police officers. While other riot squads field rugby, weight-lifting, kendo and other sports teams, the Ninth Riot Squad has manned the Eagles since their inception.

“My personal opinion is that the spirit of football — fighting, sacrificing and cooperating — perfectly matches the ethos of being a policeman,” said Yoshitaka Waga, the head coach of the Eagles.

The Police Department has not been shy about promoting the Eagles and their gladiator image to fight crime, a curiosity given that Japanese alternatives like kendo, karate and sumo may better suit an institution like the police.

Still, the Eagles were included in a recent advertising campaign designed to crack down on gangsters. In one poster, 11 Eagles stood shoulder to shoulder with their helmets at their sides looking at a bright horizon and Tokyo in the distance. Above them, a slogan in Japanese reads: “Everybody is a leading player. Protect with you, safe town Tokyo.”

The Eagles may like to promote themselves as paragons of the community, but they have to work to overcome their underdog image on the field. Two years ago, they were promoted to the top division but were quickly relegated. In the second division, they won every game and earned promotion.

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The Eagles’ running game overwhelmed the Hurricanes, 52-0.CreditKo Sasaki for The New York Times

Their first game in the two-game spring season, against the Meiji Yasuda Pirates, ended in a scoreless tie. But on a sun-splashed Mother’s Day, the Eagles dominated the Hurricanes in front of a few hundred fans who paid 1,300 yen, or about $11, for a ticket.

Japanese Flair

X League games follow N.C.A.A. rules — except quarters are 12 minutes instead of 15 — but the Eagles-Hurricanes game had a distinctly Japanese flavor. The captains who met at midfield for the coin toss bowed to each other, the referees and then their fans. The four cheerleaders for the Hurricanes, clad in red-and-gold outfits, danced to snippets of rock anthems and shouted, “Ho, ho, ho, let’s go!” — even as their team fell hopelessly behind.

Befitting a team of civil servants, the Eagles lacked cheerleaders and thunder sticks. But their fans hung banners in the end zone, including one that praised Tanaka, the Eagles’ captain. Most of their fans were friends or relatives of the players.

“After coming to games for five or six years, I finally understand the rules,” said Takayuki Ichimura, who went to high school with Tanaka. “There are lots of small and big players, and every size and speed.”

Even a fan with a glancing knowledge of the game could not mistake the outcome. The Eagles, fortified by a relentless running game, beat the undermanned Hurricanes, 52-0.

After their victory, the Eagles assembled outside the stadium and gave pink and red carnations to their mothers, wives and girlfriends, many of whom posed with the players for pictures. Then the team gathered around Waga, its coach. One of the department’s top officers presented Tanaka with a congratulatory gift and then hustled into a waiting car.

The win was a relief, not just because it showed that the Eagles were deserving of their promotion, but also because one of their bosses was there to see it. But then that is nothing new for the Eagles, who feel pressure to uphold their image as some of the toughest cops in Japan.

“We can’t lose the game because we don’t want the public to think that we’re weak,” Waga said, laughing.

Correction:

An article last Sunday about the Keishicho Eagles, a football team made up of members of the Tokyo Police Department in Japan’s X League, misstated the length of quarters under N.C.A.A. rules, from which X League rules are drawn. N.C.A.A. quarters are 15 minutes, not 12. (X League quarters are 12 minutes.)

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page SP1 of the New York edition with the headline: Tokyo Police Respond to the Call of Football . Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe